History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I, Part 82

Author: Middleton, Evan P., editor
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1196

USA > Ohio > Champaign County > History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 82

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Company D as constituted in September, 1917, was largely composed of Champaign county men. The residence of the men is indicated in the appended roster. Those who were at the Mexican front in 1916 are indi- cated by an asterisk (*). The roster follows, all thus named being Cham- paign county men, save where otherwise indicated :

Commissioned officers-Captain, *George S. Middleton; first lieutenant, *Laylin Rock ; second lieutenant, *Coleman B. Ross.

Non-commissioned officers-First sergeant, *Eugene Johnson; second sergeant, *Floyd C. Dunlap: sergeants, *Harry C. Cooksey. * Clarence E. Cotrel. * Thomas McDaniel, *Carlyn R. Wiant. * David Thorne ( Pennsyl- vania ) ; corporals, *Gilbert Cotrell. * Herman Allen, *Harley Zirkle, *Fred Bratton, *John Peters and *Robert J. Johnson ( Logan county) ; musicians, *Edgar F. Wagner and *William Butler (Logan county) : cooks, *Scott L. Dolby and James A. Adams ( Kent, Ohio).

Privates-Gilbert Adams. Willis B. Anderson, Ray A. Ball. Forest W. Berry, Alfred F. Braden, Lee M. Bunnelle, Donald Cannon. Ralph Cannon, *John Carder ( Logan county). Earl T. Carter, Teobaldo R. Casanova

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(Porto Rico), August E. Clemens (Franklin county), Harry Clifford (Cleveland ), *John L. Crabb, Ray Crabbe, Keith Cretors, Fred Cromwell, Settinio Delmoro, Russell De Long, William Dempster, *Kenneth Douglas, *Patrick C. Dugan, *Dennis Dunning, Royal Dresser, *Russell Eba (Ken- tucky ), John G. Edwards, Clarence Enoch, Abraham Evans, John C. Fischer, Carl Francis. Robert S. French, James F. Gannon, *Walter W. Godwin (Logan county), *Herman Grimes (Logan county), Irvin C. Holmes (Vir- ginia ), *Francis Howell, Wilbur Hurd, Ray Jenkins, *Elmer E. Johnson ( Logan county), Harry Jones ( Portsmouth, Ohio), Elmer C. King (Logan county), *Thomas C. Layton, +James V. Lebkisher, Frank Leonard (Frank- lin county ), *Charles J. Long (Logan county), Domini Malena, Earl W. Markin, Ural McCaulla, *Pearl McClure, *Paul McCully, *Thomas L. McWade (Logan county), *Nathaniel Milligan, *Roy Musselman (Logan county ), *Benjamin F. Owen, Earl B. Paxton, Robert S. Pense, Fred Penny- packer (Pennsylvania), Harold Piatt (Logan county), *Walter Pullins, Jesse I. Reamer, Earl E. Rice, Leo R. Rice, *Simeon J. Rowland, Bartley Schmidt, Ivan Schmidt, Basil A. Spain, Flournoy Stevenson, Dee Daniel Taylor, *John Taylor, Harrison W. Tillman (Logan county), James Thompson ( Franklin county ), *David True, Glen D. Vickrey, Floyd Waln (Franklin county), *Harry Watkins (Logan county), Fred E. Ward (Franklin county ), Marion Wells, Hebby L. Wertz, Hobart Wiley ( Mon- tana ), Seymour Williams (Franklin county), James A. Woodruff (Frank- lin county ), *William D. Woodward, *Arthur Young, Harold Zeller, Wil- bur F. Zeigler, Harry Kennedy, *Forest W. Fox, *Elmer E. Hurd, *Edgel H. Shepard, Warren C. Reynolds, *Russell C. Chatwood, *Irwin W. Sund- heimer, Adam McGill, Fred Autz (Franklin county), Leo Urban, *Cecil Spellman and Carlisle Pickering.

RED CROSS DONATIONS.

Champaign county is proud of the record it made in the summer of 1917 in collecting more than fifteen thousand dollars for the National Red Cross war fund. More than a third of this amount was contributed by fifty-one individuals, corporations, churches or other organizations of the county, each of which contributed at least one hundred dollars for the fund. The following list of hundred-dollar contributors has been furnished by James F. Hearn, the official head of the Red Cross Society in Champaign county, and contains the subscriptions up to August 15, 1917.

The Urbana contributors are as follow: The Murphy Lumber Com-

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pany, Mrs. J. S. Kirby, C. H. Marvin, Mrs. Anna M. Johnson, the Misses Williams, in memory of Mrs. Milo G. Williams; E. E. Cheney, George A. Talbott. D. McCrery & Son, John H. James, R. E. and Rovilla Humphreys, Cyrus Miller, George McConnel, Mrs. Margaret McConnell, the Howard Paper Company, Lucius S. Howard, H. M. Howard, John P. Neer, E. P. Middleton, Isaac T. Johnson, Charles F. Johnson, Mrs. D. S. Perry, L. C. Shyrigh, Miss Elizabeth Weaver, the W. B. Marvin Manufacturing Com- pany, Miss Josephine Valentine, Class No. 8 of the First Baptist church, Thomas B. Owen. J. C. MacCracken & Sons, Charles E. Buroker, Urbana Tool and Die Company, E. W. Holding, Frank C. Gaumer, W. E. Brown, Quinn M. Yocum, the Ohio Fuel Supply Company, Joseph C. Thackery. W. W. Wilson, William R. Wilson, John J. and Helen Mumper, W. R. War- nock, John C. Barnett and two anonymous subscriptions.

The St. Paris contributors are four in number : David McMorran, Grant McMorran, Fred and Fannie Black and A. T. Harmon; Mechanics- burg furnished two contributors, D. J. Burnham and the Hodge brothers. The little village of Mingo added two more to the roll of honor, Mrs. E. J. Stevenson and Miss Mary D. Johnson.

The Red Cross supply department has taken up the work of knitting for the soldiers and Mrs. R. M. Day has charge of this work. Almost all of the Red Cross auxiliaries have organized for work and at each of their workrooms the women are meeting and sewing upon the hospital garments. The completed garments are inspected by Mrs. E. P. Middleton, who has entire charge of the work of the auxiliaries.

The people of Woodstock, a village of three hundred and twelve in- habitants, have achieved a record in Red Cross activities probably without an equal in the United States. In the drive for memberships and subscrip- tions to the war fund they turned in a total of $1,626.91, of which $1.074 was for memberships, of which twenty-two are life-memberships-probably an unrivalled result.

ASSOCIATED CHARITIES OF URBANA.

The Associated Charities of Urbana, which dates its beginning from the days just following the Civil War, was formerly known as the Benevo- Jent Society of Urbana. For a period of half a century this worthy organi- zation, by which the citizens of Urbana have been enabled to bring succor in times of economic stress to the city's deserving poor. has, as its long and active career shows, been a very efficient organization of its kind. It has ever held to the principles with which its first members were imbued, when

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the nation lay stunned, wounded, seared and bleeding after the four long years of terrible bloodshed of the Rebellion.

About eighteen years ago the Benevolent Society was reorganized into a society known as the Associated Charities, and the latter has proved a very efficient successor to the older organization, relieving the temporary needs of Urbana's poor with efficiency and dispatch. The Associated Charities is financed by voluntary gifts of money, donated at the Christmas season, the high tide of the year when good cheer and Christian generosity permeates the world, and also by the receipts from the annual "tag day."

The officers of the Associated Charities at this time are: Mrs. E. P. Middleton, president : Mrs. George W. Hitt, vice-president; Mrs. Horace Hubbell, secretary: Mrs. W. M. Rock, treasurer; and the advisory board composed of Mrs. W. M. Rock, Mrs. Emma S. Eichelberger and Mrs. John Connor. It is quite probable that the resources and the energy of the Asso- ciated Charities will be severely taxed during the period of our participation in the great World War, but its years of experience and the hearty support given it by the citizens of the city will undoubtedly permit it to perform its tasks generously and well.

CHAMPAIGN COUNTY RED CROSS SOCIETY.

In times of peace, we had international law, international friendliness, and international confidence, but during the present World War, to our bit- ter disappointment, we have seen these international institutions revolution- ized. Peaceful merchantmen have been changed into battle cruisers. Fish- ing smacks have been changed to mine trawlers. We feel at times that inter- national law is a myth. We smile sardonically at the mention of interna- tional friendliness and confidence. But there is one international institu- tion that has not changed to a machine for the stern work of war. It is the Red Cross. It does not discriminate among creeds, races, or nationalities. It is a machine of mercy which carries its tender messages of comfort, of succor, and gentleness to the Christian and the Mohammedan, the Ethiopian and the Caucasian, the German and the Englishman, bringing the tired, agonized spirits surcease, and with magic touch conjuring the wrecked bodies back to health again.

But there was a time when there was not a Red Cross. Think of the unspeakable conditions a century ago when nations were at war. More sol- diers died from unsanitary camp conditions, and inadequate hospital facil- ities than from the bullets of their enemy. Especially terrible were such conditions in the Crimean War from 1854-1856. Soldiers died like flies

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from disease. The call of distress went back to England for help to save her gallant soldiers. The great need was nurses and hospitals; and in answer to the call Florence Nightingale, a devoted Englishwoman, brought a little band of earnest and competent women together and sailed for Scutari in 1854. As soon as she had organized and improved the hospital work, a change was noticeable in the mortality among the soldiers. She was really the first Red Cross nurse, but it was thirty years afterward when the Red Cross Society assumed its international aspect.

Even during our own Civil War we had no Red Cross; in fact no real, properly organized effort was made toward helping the wounded until a year after the beginning of the war. The devotion of the good women then was not different from what it is now in this present world crisis, for soon the ladies of Champaign county and of other counties in the North formed Ladies Aid Societies, which prepared food and delicacies for their heroes at the front. At first jams, jellies and some articles of knitted wear were sent in boxes to the boys in blue ; and later bandages and lint were prepared for hospital use. Soon the necessity for concerted effort was made obvious, and the Sanitary Commission was formed; this, however, was not the foun- dation of the present Red Cross organization. In 1861, the Sanitary Com- mission became a national organization for the temporary relief of the Northern soldiers in the hospitals. Bandages were made and sent to the front, and lint, then largely used in surgery, was scraped from old pieces of clean linen cloths. These cloths were cut into small squares and distrib- uted among the girls at school. Then each girl took her portion home and scraped it, then she divided the strands into a mass of fibers, the whole form- ing a spongy mass used for stopping the flow of blood.

Probably the greatest leader among the Urbana Sanitary Commission workers was the late Mrs. Milo G. Williams, mother of the Misses Adelaide and Louise Williams of South High street. It was largely due to her mas- terful leadership that the zeal of the workers was not allowed to flag. Most of these good women who so unselfishly devoted themselves to that great work of sending aid and comfort to the stricken boys in the field, have long since gone to their reward, followed by the undying gratitude of the nation and the benediction of the soldiers of the Rebellion.

After some years of service the Red Cross Society, which had been only a local organization, convinced the world that it deserved international rec- ognition. Two international conferences were called at Geneva, Switzer- land. in 1881 and 1884. America was not represented in the first meeting, but she was ably so in the second by the first president of the American Red

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Cross Society, that wonderful woman, Clara Barton. The work of the Red Cross is not limited to the alleviation of the sufferings from war, but when disasters resulting from flocds, tornadoes and earthquakes strike an unsus- pecting people, its forces are ready to lend timely succor to the unfortu- nates. Until recently, however, the American people have been tardy in be- coming members of the national organization.

When the nation began to prepare for the struggle against the forces of autocracy and absolutism to preserve the principles for which thousands of its sons have shed their blood, the American people arose nobly to the call for funds to bring aid to the boys who go forth to fight the nation's battles. We are indeed fortunate now in having an organization such as the Red Cross, which is amply provided with the complete machinery for doing this work, for we shall not have to waste valuable time and material in experimentation; and we are showing our appreciation of its efficiency by giving it our unstinted support. The first call for $100,000,000 was so heartily answered by metropolis and hamlet that the amount was over- subscribed.

LOCAL RED CROSS WORK.

The people of Champaign county, in support of this worthy cause, have shown themselves typical of the country at large. Before a state of war was declared between the United States and Germany, a preliminary meeting, attended by thirty-five persons, was held in Urbana on March 12, 1917, to discuss the permanent organization of the Champaign County Chapter of the American Red Cross Society. The movement met with such hearty indorsement, that a subsequent meeting was held in the city building on the evening of April 5, 1917, when the permanent organization of the chapter was effected, by electing twelve directors, namely: I. N. Keyser, chairman; Mrs. W. M. Rock, Mrs. G. T. Jordan, J. F. Hearn, C. E. Buroker, Miss Josephine Valentine, Miss Lillian Nutt, W. E. Brown, Rev. W. M. Stimson, George McConnell, Capt. G. I. Leonard, and Coleman Ross. Honorary members of the board of directors are: Dr. E. W. Ludlow, president of the Champaign County Medical Society, and Mrs. E. P. Middleton, presi- dent of the associated charities. In addition to these, the mayors of Me- chanicsburg, Mutual, Woodstock, North Lewisburg, Spring Hill, St. Paris and Christiansburg are ex officio members of the board. On the same day the following permanent officers were elected: Mayor George A. Talbot, chairman; 1. N. Keyser, vice-chairman; James F. Hearn, secretary, and H.

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A. Griswold, treasurer. On the executive committee are Mayor Talbot, George McConnell, I. N. Keyser, James F. Hearn, Mrs. G. T. Jordan and Mrs. William M. Rock.

The next question confronting the chapter was to find headquarters of adequate capacity for the work of the Red Cross. Fortunately the armory of Company D, Ohio National Guard, which is a part of the Clifford Theater building, was offered for the purpose. Since the armory had not been occu- pied since Company D left in June, 1916, for the Mexican border, it was thoroughly renovated, and on about April 14, the society took possession. The chapter immediately began the formation of auxiliaries, and now has two branches and twelve auxiliaries fully organized in the county, which are all in splendid working order. At this time all the units are engaged in mak- ing the various supplies needed by the national organization.

When the first requisition of the National Red Cross Society for a hundred million dollars was made, the Champaign county chapter imme- diately busied itself and filled its quota. The following are the names of those who donated one hundred dollars each : Miss Elizabeth Weaver, Lucien Howard, Maxwell Howard, the Howard Paper Mills, G. A. Talbot, George McConnell, W. R. Warnock, C. F. Johnson, Miss Josephine Valentine, W. W. Wilson, C. E. Buroker, J. P. Neer, E. P. Middleton, D. McCrery & Son, W. E. Brown, Mrs. Margaret McConnell, John H. James, Quinn M. Yocum, J. J. and Miss Helen Mumper, Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Humphreys, Murphy Lumber Company, W. B. Marvin Company, Isaac T. Johnson, Joseph Thackery, S. S. Deaton, Frank C. Gaumer, Mrs. Elizabeth J. Stevenson, Mingo, Ohio, Mrs. Anna M. Johnson, C. E. Marvin, Mrs. E. W. Holding, Class No. 8 of the First Baptist Sunday School, W. R. Wilson, E. E. Cheney, Judge T. B. Owen, Urbana Tool and Die Company, J. C. McCracken & Sons, Mrs. John S. Kirby, Misses M. E. and A. H. Williams, L. C. Shyrigh, and one hundred dollars by someone who preferred not to be known.

By its unflagging industry the Champaign county chapter soon placed itself among the first counties of the United States to send Red Cross ma- terial to the front. On Wednesday, July 25, 1917, the Champaign Red Cross Unit sent four large boxes of supplies to the organization's headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, from whence they were forwarded to the hospitals in France. Much of the material was made up in Urbana, but a large part was done by the various auxiliaries in the various parts of the county.

One box contained things needed in treatment of surgery cases. In it were two dozen gauze bandages, twelve dozen gauze compresses and pads, one dozen gauze rolls, twelve dozen gauze wipes or sponges, one dozen knitted

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wipes or sponges, one dozen gauze drains, one-half dozen gauze laparotomy pads with tapes, and two pounds of absorbent cotton. Another box con- tained bandages as follows: Thirty-four dozen four-inch muslin bandges, thirty-three dozen three-inch muslin bandages, two dozen four-inch flannel bandages, three dozen three-inch flannel bandages, five dozen four-tailed bandages, three dozen abdominal bandages, three dozen T bandages. five dozen slinges, and twelve pounds of absorbent cotton. Two other boxes contained needs for hospital beds: Eleven dozen sheets, eight dozen pillow cases, twelve dozen towels, three dozen bath towels, two dozen wash cloths, twenty-four bath robes, thirty-three suits of pajamas, sixty pairs of socks, and eighteen pairs of bed socks.

It is certain that as the war continues the devotion of the good people of Champaign county to the cause of justice and liberty which was so ably enunciated in the never-to-be-forgotten words of our noble President, will not allow their zeal to slacken in preparing the comforts for the boys who go to the front to give their last full measure of devotion, if need be, to safeguard the light of liberty and to frustrate the terrible ogre of Prussian- ism from ever polluting the fair soil of our free land. As calls are made in the future. the county, as it has ever done in its glorious military past, will give without stint of its sons and resources to the great cause for which the civilized world has risen in arms.

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CHAPTER XXX.

BANKS AND BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS.

There was little need of banks in the first half century of the organiza- tion of Champaign county. The people had very little specie and such banks as did exist prior to 1850 were largely banks of issue. They bought and sold notes of other banks and their profits were largely due to the shrewdness of their managers in guessing what notes would be worth buying and how long they could hold what they did buy with a reasonable assurance of profit. During the thirties and forties most of the currency was known as "wildcat" money and this feline designation sufficiently explains the esteem in which this money was held. The term "shin-plaster" was also in current use dur- ing this same period and was applied to paper currency issued by banks, mer- chants or anyone who might want to pay a printer to have some of it struck off. Prior to the Civil War, and even during that struggle, a substitute for specie came into use which was commonly known as "token" money. This was nothing more than a coin issued by merchants usually bearing their own name and the particular value attached to them by their owner. The mer- chant redeemed these "tokens" at the value which they represented, and, if the merchant was known to be responsible, his "tokens" became, in a sense. the circulating medium of his community. As might be expected, the farther the "token" wandered from its sponsor the less valuable it became.

Another method of providing a medium of exchange was the issuance of what were known as "due bills", which, in effect, were the same as "tokens". It is true that there was a small amount of United States specie in circulation, but it was very limited in the first half century of the county's history. In fact, so limited was silver specie that it was customary to cut a silver dollar into nine triangular pieces, with the longest point tapering toward the center of the coin. This money, when so cut, was facetiously referred to as "sharp-shins". It was also customary to cut the twenty-five cent piece into two pieces and the resultant pieces were known throughout the western states as "bits". Frequently the "bit" was halved and the early county treasurers of Champaign took over many a six-and-a-quarter-cent piece as part payment for taxes. The local records bear frequent witness to the fact that the pioneers of this county cut their money to pieces and fractional cur-

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rency was evidently very much in evidence in all minor transactions. Scarcely a taxpayer in the county but found his annual bill to the county treasurer with a fractional cent itemized thereon.

THE FIRST BANK.

There is no doubt that there was some kind of a bank in operation in Urbana as early as 1814, but official records and documentary proof of its existence have disappeared along with the men who were connected with it. This bank even antedates the one which is usually referred to as the first bank in the state. History records that the first bank in Ohio was established at Cincinnati on January 28, 1817, as a branch of the United States bank. In October of the same year another branch of the United States bank was opened at Chillicothe and both banks were soon doing a prosperous business. In fact, so flourishing did they become that in 1819 the state resolved to list them for taxation and scheduled them for fifty thousand dollars each. As might be expected both banks registered a vigorous protest and the next few months saw their case carried from the local courts to the United States supreme court. That tribunal decided that the two federal banks of Ohio did not have to pay a state tax, and the state in retaliation outlawed the two banks by refusing them the protection of the state courts in enforcing the collection of their debts. These banks of 1817 were federal institutions, but it seems certain that there were local banks like the one at Urbana for some years prior to their establishment.

Since 1820, when the state experienced its first difficulty with banks, there has been little trouble between the civil authority of the state and the banks. With few exceptions they have been amenable to state supervision, and gradually constitutional and statutory restrictions have been thrown around them in such a way as to fully protect their depositors. At the pres- ent time few, if any states in the Union, have a better banking code than Ohio.

THE URBANA BANKING COMPANY.

The history of the banks of Champaign county, if they may be so called, which existed prior to 1851 is shrouded in more or less obscurity. They were not under state supervision and were not obligated to make public reports of their business and consequently the historian is compelled to rely on such fugitive references in the local papers as may pertain to them. Men- tion has been made of some kind of a banking company which came into

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existence at Urbana about 1814, but little is known of the company other than its name. It was known as the Urbana Banking Company and it seemed to have led a more or less prosperous monetary career until about 1842. The Citizen and Gasette, in its issue of January 18, 1900, makes the statement that William Helps, of Urbana, had come into possession of a three-dollar note of the Urbana Banking Company, issued in 1838, and signed by John H. James, as president, and T. Rhinehart, as cashier.

Concerning the beginning of this Urbana Banking Company, the his- torian falls back on tradition and unsupported documentary evidence for such facts as are presented. Thus, it is said that it was opened for business in a building on Miami street near the public square. John Reynolds, the first village postmaster, is recorded as having been the first president of the institution and William Neil, the first cashier. No reference to either man in any of the sketches of their careers indicates that either had any connection at any time with any bank. How much and what kind of business it trans- acted, who its successive officers were, or how long it maintained its existence, are questions which have not been satisfactorily answered. Local court records credit it with a career extending down as late as 1842, but there is no documentary proof that it closed its career at that time. It seems certain that John H. James was the president of the banking company during the last few years of its career. It is not known what brought about the suspen- sion of the bank's operations, nor whether it was succeeded by some other financial institution. In the proceedings of the common pleas court there is an entry to the effect that it went into a receiver's hands on February 14, 1842 (Duplicate Deed Record, R., p. 136). The record states that the receivers were Edward B. Cavileer, Samuel Keener and William Rianhard. John H. James was president of the bank at this time. Another record in the same volume above mentioned (p. 482) gives William McDonald as "special receiver in chancery", in referring to the muddled condition of the bank. Just what disposition was finally made of the institution is not apparent from the court records, although a short notice is given in another volume of the court records to the effect that the bank effected a transfer of land on February 22, 1844. The bank evidently closed its doors sometime during the middle of the forties.

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History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I, Part 82

Author: Middleton, Evan P., editor Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1196

Author: Middleton, Evan P., editor
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1196